Law Commons^™

Defining Residency Under The Federal Homestead Exemption, Sally Profeta

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

The homestead exemption is a longstanding doctrine in American jurisprudence that protects the interest debtors have in their dwelling when filing for bankruptcy. Section 522(d)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code’s federal exemption scheme provides debtors with the opportunity to preserve the interest they have in their residence, with outside limits on the amount that interest is valued. However, courts are divided on the interpretation of the word “residence,” and have struggled to determine whether “residence” requires actual occupancy of the claimed property at the date of filing.

There are two cannons of statutory interpretation that are used in this context, …

Are Government Creditors Exempt From U.C.C. Article 9 Filing And Perfection Requirements?, Thomas Sica

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (the “UCC”) requires a creditor to perfect its security interests against its collateral in order to recover the creditor’s priority in such collateral. Former versions of the UCC that predate 2001 provided that the Article 9’s perfection requirements did not apply “[t]o a transfer by a government or a governmental unit of the state.” This exception was eliminated from the UCC in 2001. Thirty-two states, however, still have versions of the UCC that contain some version of this exception. Within the states that still enforce this exception for governmental units, there are …